


Ms Heriot, Meet Dr Song

by Justice_Turtle (Curuchamion)



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Character Death Fix, Episode: s04e08 Silence in the Library, Episode: s04e09 Forest of the Dead, Exactly What It Says on the Tin, Fix-It, Gen, Timey-Wimey, Women Being Awesome, Zoe Heriot is awesome, Zoe is so much smarter than the Doctor, what goes in(to the computer) can come out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-06
Updated: 2013-01-06
Packaged: 2017-11-23 21:14:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/626586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curuchamion/pseuds/Justice_Turtle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Zoe Heriot is so much smarter than the Doctor. Search your feelings, you know it to be true. Post-ep fixit for Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead.</p><p>
  <a href="http://fandom-stocking.dreamwidth.org/330975.html?thread=4817631#cmt4817631">Originally posted in dbskyler's fandom_stocking.</a>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ms Heriot, Meet Dr Song

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dbskyler](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dbskyler/gifts).



"--biggest library in the universe. You see, Jamie, this whole section covers the tapestry artwork of the early..."

Zoe wandered off between the stacks. Vashta Nerada there might be in the Library, predatory and voracious, but they were also sentient beings; the Doctor had repeatedly assured both Zoe and Jamie that by this time period, researchers had a regular method of negotiating truces with the Vashta Nerada - a set quantity of meat offered at day's end in return for a day spent in the Library unmolested. The TARDIS was even now, if all was well, sending out the coded signal that warned the Vashta Nerada to keep off and promised them their payment at the end of the day.

(Zoe rather wondered, with her ever-present scientific curiosity, if these truces might not turn in a few more millennia into a religious tradition, possibly even one of sacrificing a crew member at the end of a successful day's research, but for now, science and negotiated limits ruled the transaction.)

"How may I be of service?" asked a woman's voice, mechanically.

Zoe looked up. "Oh!" she said. "Are you an information kiosk?" She was familiar with voice-operated kiosks from her own time, but she'd never seen one that used a disembodied human face before.

"Yes, I am a Node," said the face. "How may I be of service?"

"What sorts of information are you programmed with?" Zoe asked, fascinated. "Do all the kiosks in the Library look like you? Tell me about yourself."

"I am programmed to answer questions about the Library and relay announcements to the patrons," said the Node. "This face was chosen to speak to you by the Library's central computer. Do you find it pleasing?"

"Yes, I do rather," Zoe said, truthfully. "Your central computer's algorithm must be very advanced."

"Thank you," said the Node. "It was the most advanced facial selection algorithm in the galaxy at the time the Library was built."

Zoe nodded. "That's very impressive. Is this a created face, or was it copied from a person?" she asked.

"This face belonged to a woman who was... saved. She was the last person to be... saved in this computer's database," the Node said.

Zoe frowned. She might have started her travels as a human computer, but traveling with the Doctor will heighten anyone's sense for the off-balance and weird; by this time, her lifelong training in logical thought simply backed up her intuitive sense that something was strange about this phrasing. "Can you show me another face?"

The Node's central skin smoothed out and rumpled again, this time into a man's face. "How may I be of service?"

"Can you tell me about the person who had this face?" Zoe asked.

"He donated it to the Library's central computer bank when he died," the Node told her.

All right, definitely something strange going on. "Thank you. I have one more question," Zoe said. "Where is the nearest terminal that can access the central computer bank directly? I'm sure you have them, for in-depth query strings that can't easily be communicated by voice." She smiled sweetly.

"Three levels south, in Area Q-44-6-Z," the Node said.

"Thank you very much," Zoe told the Node, and hurried off. After a moment she stopped, turned around, and shouted, "Doctor? Doctor, Jamie, I'm going to Area Q-44-6-Z. I'll be right back." She seriously doubted either of them would remember the exact number once they noticed she'd left, but at least she'd told them.

* * * * *

_Three hours later._

"Zoe?" the Doctor said, looking around. "Zoe--Jamie, where has Zoe gone, did you notice?"

"She said she was gaein' off tae anither level, Doctor," Jamie said. "I wouldna worry. She kens where we left the TARDIS, an' yon computer faces can tell her where we are. Ye're sure these wee Vashta Nerada beasties willna hae eaten her?"

"Quite sure, Jamie, quite sure," the Doctor said, but he rubbed his hands rather anxiously as he said it. "It's nearly twelve hours until we have to leave. Yes, I'm quite certain Zoe has come to no harm..."

Jamie frowned. When the Doctor was that sure of something, it was well to double-check. He turned around, looking for the nearest Node.

"Och! Hello, Zoe," he said, definitely not jumping back a bit, because she certainly hadn't just sneaked up on him and he was completely not startled. "Who might your friend be?"

"I'm Professor River Song," announced the curly-haired woman Zoe had brought back with her. "Your friend Zoe here pulled me out of the computer just now, with the aid of a teleport pad and some very clever coding."

"Well, thank you, but it wasn't terribly much," Zoe interjected. Jamie could already see that these two were going to be _all over_ each other's genius intellects as soon as it was settled that Professor Song would travel with them. And she would undoubtedly be traveling with them.

"And I have several friends who were also trapped in the computer," Professor Song continued. Presumably the group of people straggling around the nearest corner behind her were her friends. "Zoe tells me you have a spaceship that can hold all of us, so if one of you would just lead us to where it's docked? I won't cut your research time short," she said sweetly, "but I'm sure none of my team is terribly eager to stay in the Library any longer. We had rather a bad time before we were... saved."

"Oh!" said the Doctor, blinking. Jamie sometimes wondered if his mind was actually a jack-in-the-box that popped in and out of the world at random intervals. "Oh yes, yes of course. Yes, quite. Zoe, would you show these people to the TARDIS, please? Here's the key."

Jamie was pretty sure neither the Doctor nor Zoe noticed Professor Song's face when the Doctor said _TARDIS._


End file.
